A Commoner's Love
by Mystia Katsuragi
Summary: You can poke fun at the title if you want, but read the story before you ridicule me. A HaughtyShipping oneshot. Rated T for one kissing scene. Really late birthday present for Jellyfingers. Image is not mine.


_**A Commoner's Love**_

A boy with short yet somewhat spiky blonde hair stood still in front of an extremely large house. He felt unsure as to whether or not it would be OK for him to go inside the villa, even though he just knocked on the door. The handle actually moved when he tried to push it open, so he could easily walk into the house, but he wanted to wait for his hostess to answer the knock.

After a few more seconds passed, he was ready to go in anyways, with or without the OK. But, before he could put his hand on the handle again, the door was opened, and a girl with raven hair and silvery-blue eyes met the startled stare of the blonde-haired boy.

He showed a wide smile to the raven-haired girl, and his golden eyes grew significantly larger. "Missy!" he exclaimed in an excited tenor as his right hand shot upward, waving at the lady despite standing less than a foot from her. "It's great to see you! It seems like it's been forever!"

She closed her eyes and gave a small smile of her own. "It has been a while, Pearl," she quietly admitted. "However, we have spoken through the phone quite a few times, so it does not feel as if it has been so long since we last saw each other. My calendars assure me that it has been many weeks, but I digress." She motioned for the blonde to follow her into the villa. "Come, we can continue this conversation inside."

Pearl practically jumped at the offer and entered the building, walking behind the raven-haired girl, and his mouth gaped at the interior. There was an enormous sink and a variety of food-related appliances—an oven, a stove, a microwave, a refrigerator, even some Pearl had never seen before—located in one room, which he accurately assumed would be the kitchen. A room to their left contained two colossal bookcases that were entirely occupied by books, and there were two computers—a laptop and a desktop—sitting on top of a huge desk that seemed to be made from some kind of white wood.

"Wow, this is a really big house," he murmured as they stepped through the doorway and entered what seemed to be the living room. "Does this place belong to you, missy, or do you share it with a bunch of other people?"

The lady did not respond and headed straight to the television that was positioned against one of the walls. Realizing that they were going to watch a movie, Pearl decided to sit on top of the couch placed about ten feet in front of the television.

As he seated himself, the girl opened a DVD case and retrieved the disc from it, then she inserted it into the DVD player while pressing the power button on the television screen. When it displayed the title screen of the movie—entitled _Holding the Moon Stone_—she showed a smirk to the electrical device, proud of her accomplishment in getting it to work for her.

While she tried to get the movie to play, she told the blonde, "This villa is the property of the Berlitz family. My father bought it from the previous owner several years back, and we will usually stay here when we are in this area." She gave up on attempting to get it to play without using the remote and began to search for the small device. "But, occasionally, my father or I will invite guests to the house, and they will temporarily reside here."

She found the remote inside the drawer beneath the television, and she pressed a few of the buttons in an effort to make the screen do something in response. "One of the most common visitors is a man named Steven Stone, whose father is familiar with mine. Caitlin also visits quite often, as her family has a villa of their own that is close to this one."

The screen froze then turned black, and the girl was surprised for a minute, but when it started to show the opening credits of the movie, she let out a sigh of relief. She sat on the couch but did not sit directly beside Pearl, which made the boy frown in disappointment. The girl either did not notice this frown or ignored it, and she continued, "This movie we are about to watch was actually loaned to me by Caitlin herself. She said that the main Pokemon lead is a female Tepig, and I know from experience that this particular Pokemon is a simply brilliant actress."

"A Tepig?" the blonde asked, his voice incredulous. "Isn't that a Pokemon from the Unova region? How did the people who made the movie get one of those?"

The girl responded, "It was filmed in Unova, so naturally they would use a Pokemon that is native to the region." The credits stopped, and the actual movie began, so her attention shifted from her friend to the television screen. "In any case, I sincerely hope the film will be as enjoyable for me as it was for Caitlin," she said, then quietly added, "and I hope you enjoy yourself as well, Pearl."

He grinned at this and also focused on the movie, but after watching it for nearly ten minutes, he noticed some rather obvious signs of it being a romantic film, and he did not particularly want to watch a chick flick. But the lady seemed to be enjoying herself, so he remained silent and tried not to gag at the love scenes throughout the movie.

Instead of focusing on the television screen, he watched the girl beside him and observed her reactions to various moments in the movie. They were very hard to see, since she restrained her body from physically responding to what her eyes were seeing, but he could occasionally hear a suppressed sound that resembled laughter, and he got to see a lone tear form at the corner of her left eye before it was rapidly blinked away.

As the ending credits rolled, Pearl concluded that watching the lady's reactions was more interesting than watching the movie she was reacting to, but he chose not to voice his negative criticism on the movie to someone who clearly enjoyed watching it. He stretched out his arms and took a deep breath when the girl stood from the couch to eject the DVD from the player.

He attempted to start a conversation about the movie, but he ended up asking a question that did not involve the actual movie. "So, the Caitlin who loaned this movie to you—is she also the owner of the Battle Castle?"

The raven-haired girl removed the disc and returned it to its case before telling the boy, "Yes, they are the same Caitlin, just as the Steven I previously mentioned is the same Steven who used to be the Champion of the Hoenn League." She heard a loud cough of surprise from Pearl, and she raised her eyebrows at him, looking at his blonde hair in her peripheral vision. "Did this information startle you?" He nodded his head in confirmation, and she asked, "Why does it come as a surprise to you? I am from a very influential family, so our acquaintances would naturally be very influential people as well."

"Yeah, I got that," he muttered, "but I'm still surprised by how many of those influential people you can call your friends, even if they're the kids of your father's friends." He noticed the glimmer of irritation in her silvery-blue eyes, so he quickly added, "I mean, I bet you have some other friends who are really important, but Caitlin and Steven are people who you know from your father, so you can't say they're just your friends: they're your father's friends, too."

She made a 'hmph' noise and flipped some of her perfectly straight hair over her shoulders. "I have a large number of other friends made of my own accord who are very important people," she told the blonde, whose golden eyes grew a little larger in response. She strolled back to the couch and seated herself in her previous position before continuing. "For example, while traveling through the Kanto and Johto regions, I befriended many of the Gym Leaders, namely Misty, Erika, Sabrina, Jasmine, and Clair. I also engaged in an intellectually invigorating conversation with Lorelei of the Elite Four over the division of our land between people and Pokemon, so I view her as a good friend, too.

"This is only women from those two regions, mind you. I am excluding those from the Hoenn and Sinnoh areas, as well as the few people whom I was able to speak with when I visited Unova with Professor Rowan and my father. From Hoenn, I can count Roxanne and the twins—Tate and Liza—as well as Anabel from the battle facilities among my close friends. Flannery, Brawly, Phoebe of the Elite Four, and the current Champion Wallace are all acquaintances, as are Lucy and Tucker from the battle facilities.

"Our home region Sinnoh has Gardenia, Fantina, Volkner, and Cynthia, whom you are nearly as well acquainted with as I am. Although I am not very familiar with Unova at this time, Elesa and Iris are there, and I have become great friends with both of them, as well as one of the members of the Elite Four, Shauntal, who I met through Caitlin. And I did not mention this earlier, but Caitlin is currently a member of the Unova Elite Four, which is the reason why you have not seen her at the Battle Castle recently: she is residing in Unova. I would not know about this unless I was a friend of hers, because my father was not aware of this information until I informed him myself, and as I said before, she is a family friend.

"Oh, and I must also include the Pokemon Professors from all five regions: Oak from Kanto, Elm from Johto, Birch from Hoenn, Rowan from Sinnoh, and the Junipers from Unova. If it were not for my father's connections, I would not have met them, but I would not be in their good graces if it were not for my own devoted efforts in acquiring their trust."

By the time the lady finished her monologue on the important people who she can call her friends, Pearl looked like he had developed a headache from listening to her talk for so long without stopping. He gently massaged his forehead with both of his hands and muttered, "That's a lot of big names. You were right: you know a lot of important people. I'm sorry if I sounded like I was making fun of you."

The lady made another 'hmph' noise, but she provided no additional response, so Pearl decided to continue. He exhaled loudly in a frustrated sigh then added, "I guess I'm a little jealous of how many friends you have. My only real friends are you and Diamond, but I think that's more than enough, since Dia is probably the best friend a guy like me could ever ask for." He grinned as he added, "You're not so bad, either, missy. I'm happy I could be friends with a lady like you."

The lady's cheeks were turning as pink as the bubblegum-colored buttons on her dress, so she turned her head in the opposite direction to prevent Pearl from seeing her blushing face. He chuckled a little at how she always tried to hide her emotions from him, mentally recalling a statement she made many months ago about not wanting commoners to see her true self because she is so far above them, and he realized with a slight smile that she probably viewed him as being slightly better than a filthy peasant, which he figured was definitely a good thing.

He remembered what the lady just said about having so many friends, most of which were female, and his small smile turned into a frown. "You have so many girls who like you," he said to the black-haired girl, who just nodded in response, unsure of what Pearl was trying to tell her. "It's like you're in the middle of a really big, girls-only harem."

The lady scoffed at this idea, still not showing her face to the boy, and she pointed out, "It is not a harem if none of those women are romantically interested in me." A smirk formed on her lips, which Pearl could not see, and she asked, "If it were a harem, Pearl, would you be jealous of me?"

He laughed heartily before exclaiming, "No, of course not! Why would I be jealous? Having my own harem—" He shook his head, trying to clear unwanted thoughts and sexually mature images from his conscience. "I'm not into that sort of thing! It would be really creepy and disgusting and extremely awkward and—"

"You would not want a harem of your own?" the lady questioned, her smirk transforming into a suppressed smile as she tried to contain a laugh.

Pearl shook his head again. "No, I'd never want a harem," he replied. "It would be horrible to have tons of people of either gender fighting over me. I probably wouldn't even get to choose which one I'd end up with; they'd want to make the decision for me." He smiled at the girl, who was having great difficulty in suppressing her laughter, as was evident by the slight trembling of her lithe body. "Besides, I already have you, and you alone are more than I could ever want."

Her external movement rapidly stopped at this statement, and her cheeks darkened even more until they were colored a very dark shade of pink, only several hues lighter than the cherry-red color of her dress. Her smile widened, and her silver-blue eyes were most likely incapable of looking any happier.

Of course, Pearl could not see any of this, because the lady refused to look at him. He threw out a guess as to what was going on: "You're blushing and smiling!" He guessed correctly, but the girl denied it, and she moved her head every time the blonde tried to look at her face.

He sighed loudly at her unyielding behavior and threw his arms behind his head, pretending to give up on seeing her embarrassed face: he would wait until the lady had let her guard down to look at the blush, when she was not suspecting it.

He looked at the television screen, which showed gradient blue and the DVD player's logo, since there was nothing in the DVD player, and a light bulb went off in his head as he thought of a possibly way to get the lady to show herself to him again. "Missy, did you want to watch another movie?" he asked the raven-haired girl, who shook her head as a silent response. "So, the movie we just watched—that was the only one you planned to watch with me?" She slowly nodded her head in agreement, and he smirked before telling her, "If that's the only movie we're going to watch, then I should probably get going, since there's no other reason for me to be here."

Before he could stand from the couch, the lady beat him to it, and she strode to the television while continuing to hide her face from Pearl. He watched as she found another movie while mentally scolding himself for believing it would be that easy to overcome the lady's stubbornness. A female Tepig—most likely the same one from the other movie—was visible in the background on the cover of the DVD case, titled _Sunny, Followed by Hailstorms_.

"This is another movie that Caitlin is allowing me to borrow," she said quietly, her soprano so soft that Pearl had to strain his ears to hear the words. "The same Pokemon from _Holding the Moon Stone_ is in this one, and as I said before, productions featuring that Tepig as a main character have always been very enjoyable for me, so I imagine this one should be of the same level of excellence."

Pearl almost told the girl that he thought the other movie was really boring, but he did not want to receive a scolding of a similar intensity as the very recent one on her friendships with influential people, so he kept his mouth shut about it and watched as she messed with the remote. She soon accomplished her task of getting the movie to play, and it took less time than it did on her first try, so when the screen shifted from the main menu to the opening scene, she made her way back to the couch and placed herself even further from Pearl than she had been when they watched the first movie, much to the blonde's surprise.

"Why are you sitting so far from me?" he asked in a frustrated but worried tenor while he scooted closer to the raven-haired girl. "I didn't say anything to make you mad at me, did I?"

She let him sit beside her, since she was nearly on the edge of the couch and did not want to switch places: it would mean walking past Pearl and risking him seeing the red color that was still very visible on her cheeks. "N-No, you have not said anything to displease me," she hesitantly admitted. "I am merely feeling frustrated."

She sensed the boy's curious eyes focused on the back of her head, so she reluctantly brought up the topic of her blushing face, albeit in a rather roundabout way. "It is rather strange how this heat remains in my cheeks. I-I did not think it would stay there for so long, and I am still wondering what caused it in the first place."

She pressed her left hand against one cheek to check the temperature, then she ran the fingers across her mouth to the other side to see if it was just as hot. "I wonder why it is not going away," she murmured, her eyebrows furrowing a little in confusion. "Perhaps the stimuli that caused the reaction to occur is still present. Therefore, the redness and warmth will remain until the stimuli has disappeared."

Pearl laughed at her response, then he grasped one of her hands, the one that was not checking the temperature of her face. "I can make them even redder," he told her as he lowered his head to her hand and kissed the top of it, nuzzling his nose against her knuckles.

This caused the lady to whip her head and finally look at Pearl for the first time since she started blushing, fully aware that the boy's eyes were fixated on the hand he was holding and kissing. "L-Let go of my hand!" she demanded, her voice rising nearly an octave in pitch. "I do not want your commoner's lips to touch it! M-My hand will be stained by your filthy peasant mouth!"

His nose breathed out several streams of air as he started to laugh again, and his mouth vibrated a little, but he released his lips from the lady's hand and brought his gaze to her face. Her silver-blue eyes widened, and she attempted to turn her head so he could not see her blush, removing her free hand from her cheek to push his head to the side. He grabbed this hand with his other one so both of her hands were held in his, so now she was unable to move, since he was effectively restraining her entire body's movements simply by holding onto her hands.

"If you won't let me stain your hand, then I'll stain something else," he told her as he repeatedly pressed his lips against the cheek she had been holding her hand against. The raven-haired girl's eyelids closed as a reflex to prevent his nose from accidentally touching one of the eyeballs, and the warmth in her cheeks was so intense that the lady felt like it could make her pass out from heat exhaustion. When the blonde pulled away to stare at the result of his actions, he smirked a little and pointed out, "Although, that red color has already stained it, so you can't see the filthiness of my commoner lips on there."

The warmth in her cheeks was making her feel strange, and it was greatly affecting her mental state, so the raven-haired girl thought it would be a perfectly normal thing for her to press her lips against his. She did this, and it shocked Pearl so much that he did not react for a brief moment, instead tasting the strawberry-flavored lip gloss that somehow touched his tongue. He rapidly regained his composure enough to return her kiss, and he subtly strengthened his gentle hold on her hands so she could not slap him if she decided she was acting out of character and wanted to be tsundere again.

They kept their lips against each other's until they ran out of breath, but when the lady decided she could last for a while longer, she repeated the mouth-to-mouth action, so Pearl was more than happy to respond quickly and appropriately. The process of kissing until they needed to breathe then recharging their lungs with oxygen so they could do it again went on until the lady realized she could easily breathe through her nose while they were kissing, and the blonde boy quickly caught onto this idea. They kept their mouths pressed together, and eventually their tongues met, as did the rest of their bodies, with the lady laying on top of the blonde-haired commoner who she would from then on refer to as her lover.

(And the movie in the background was all but forgotten.)

* * *

_Author's Notes: I finished this on the 17th, but our regional Internet system was out of action until today, so I couldn't get online and post it when I was done. Well, considering how this is already over a month late—Julie, your birthday was on June 9th, right?—a few extra days' delay doesn't make much of a difference. But it's better to be late on a present than not to give one at all, I guess. XD_

_I think I did a pretty good job at keeping them in character. Given the fact that I can't finish reading the Diamond/Pearl arc of the Pokemon Special manga because it's not available online anywhere, you can't really expect me to nail Pearl's and the lady's personalities. I'd rate my view of them as about ninety percent accurate. This pairing is practically canon, anyways, like FranticShipping (that's Ruby and Sapphire), so I don't think I could really mess it up too much. c:_

_I originally planned to have them meet at the Battle Castle and attempt to pick up Caitlin, who couldn't make it because she was getting ready to travel to the Unova region, but I decided the story would be unnecessarily long if I wrote that at the beginning, so I left it out. Instead, I shoved in those parts about her becoming a member of the Unova Elite Four. And my love for the other characters also shines through in so many sections of the story, because I can't write about only two people in a universe as big as this one._

_(By the way, if you're familiar with the Black and White chapter of the manga, then you might have realized that those two movies they watched starred the female Tepig who is [or, uhm, used to be] a part of the BW Agency, which is run by White. I'm so clever hurr durr I can't even come up with my own movie ideas;;)_

_Whoa, this note is getting really long. I should probably stop here before people need to scroll down to read all of it. o-o If you've made it this far, please write a quick review or provide some other form of critique; I leave anonymous reviews open. Constructive criticism and critiques are always appreciated!_


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